Episode 650: "Does Gerry Have A Dream Theme?"

Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)·podcast_episode·28m 37s·analyzed·Feb 18, 2022

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Ep 650: Stern dominates execution; Haggis silenced; Spooky fumbles details; Multimorphic bets on dream theme.

Summary

Host Chris (Kaneda) delivers Episode 650 mixing criticism and praise across the pinball industry. He lauds Stern Pinball's execution and volume production while attacking Haggis Pinball's communication and fulfillment failures, Spooky Pinball's quality-control oversights (Ultraman numbering, insert issues), and Jersey Jack's slow release cadence. He highlights Multimorphic's "dream theme" teaser as a potential make-or-break moment for the P3 platform and expresses concern about American Pinball's viability and secondary market value collapse for Spooky titles.

Key Claims

Stern Pinball produces approximately 10,000 games per year at high quality and speed
high confidence · Host Chris explicitly states "Stern...they're making ten thousand games a year" and contrasts this with other manufacturers' inability to match volume at quality
Haggis Pinball has missed January 2026 update deadline and gone radio silent; 250-unit pre-orders promised for ~2 months delivery are now expected July/August fulfillment
high confidence · Chris directly states "it is still no update from Haggis Pinball. Damian promised a big update in January and he's gone radio silent. I bet these games won't even be fulfilled to all the customers a year after it was announced"
Spooky Pinball's Ultraman Limited Edition (500 units) does not display game numbers on the official plaque, only actor signature
high confidence · Chris explains: "Spooky Pinball decided on the limited edition of Ultraman because they had a chance to have the actor who played Ultraman sign the plaques...every single Ultraman has his little scribble and it does not tell you what game number you are"
Spooky Pinball Ultraman and Halloween titles are experiencing significant secondary market depreciation, with some units losing $2,000+ in value before delivery
high confidence · Chris cites specific example: "There is a guy right now trying to sell his Ultraman with the cabinet new in box...He paid over ten thousand dollars for it. He will take eighty two hundred dollars for the game and it's still not sold"
Jersey Jack Pinball has no visible timeline for next release; customers waiting 18 months with no production updates
medium confidence · Chris states: "I want the next Jersey Jack Pinball machine, I'm waiting 18 months and there's still no, there absolutely is still no line of sight on when we're going to see that game"
Multimorphic P3 has not achieved significant sales success compared to Spooky's Total Nuclear Annihilation
medium confidence · Chris asserts: "they haven't sold many...they have sold nowhere near as many P3s as Total Nuclear Annihilation"
American Pinball may not survive as a going concern; Legends of Valhalla games expected to depreciate significantly like other titles

Notable Quotes

“Stern Pinball is pinball. There is nobody else on this planet that actually does pinball at the level that Stern does.”
Chris (Kaneda) @ ~12:00 — Core thesis of episode praising Stern's dominant execution and industry leadership
“I bet these games won't even be fulfilled to all the customers a year after it was announced...I'm the unkind. I get it. I get it. I'm throwing some jokes their way. I'm making fun of the fact that they took orders 9 months ago.”
Chris (Kaneda) @ ~3:30 — Explicit criticism of Haggis Pinball's fulfillment failures and communication breakdown
“When you remove the number from what your item is, you've removed basically a lot of its collectibility...this is a boneheaded move and this is a boneheaded move.”
Chris (Kaneda) @ ~22:15 — Core critique of Spooky's decision to omit game numbers on Ultraman LE plaques, affecting collector value
“This is it now. I'm rooting for him...This is gonna be the make or break moment for this platform. If this dream theme comes out and it is a flop...there's nowhere left for him to go.”
Chris (Kaneda) @ ~35:00 — Frames Multimorphic's next game as existential for the P3 platform
“I've never seen this happen to anything from Jersey Jack Pinball, from Chicago Gaming Company...The game is basically losing $2,000 in value before the majority of people even get the game. Never seen it before.”
Chris (Kaneda) @ ~41:00 — Highlights unprecedented secondary market collapse for Spooky titles, signaling quality/confidence crisis
“Stern just get the details done better...I think Spooky Pinball really needs to have a meeting that is titled Getting the details down.”
Chris (Kaneda) @ ~27:00 — Contrasts Stern's quality rigor with Spooky's careless execution despite manufacturing competence
“These companies didn't know that [about wealthy demographic] and now they do but you know the thing about rich people...they're rich because they make sure they get the details right.”

Entities

Chris (Kaneda)personStern PinballcompanyHaggis PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyJersey Jack Pinballcompany Multimorphiccompany

Signals

?
product_concern: Haggis Pinball has missed promised January 2026 production update deadline and gone radio silent after accepting 250-unit pre-orders 9 months prior with claimed 2-month delivery timeline. Predicted fulfillment now July/August 2026 or later.
high · Chris: 'it is still no update from Haggis Pinball. Damian promised a big update in January and he's gone radio silent. I bet these games won't even be fulfilled to all the customers a year after it was announced'
?
product_concern: Spooky Pinball Ultraman Limited Edition (500 units) omits sequential game numbering on official plaques, replacing with actor signature only. This breaks collector convention and significantly damages secondary market collectibility.
high · Chris: 'When you remove the number from what your item is, you've removed basically a lot of its collectibility' and detailed explanation of signature-vs-number tradeoff
?
product_concern: Spooky Pinball has unresolved insert quality issues: Multibot insert corrected in newer games, but jack o' lantern nose (should be triangle) remains hexagon shape (inherited from Ultraman). Multiple design oversights at premium price point.
high · Chris: 'The insert now covers the whole word...But here's the weird part. They didn't fix the other insert. That was a big issue, which was the triangle nose on the jack o' lantern should be a triangle. But the insert is a hexagon'
$
market_signal: Spooky Pinball titles (Ultraman, Halloween) experiencing unprecedented depreciation: new-in-box units losing $2,000+ in value before customer delivery. Specific example: Ultraman bought for $10,000+ asking $8,200 and unsold. No parallel in Jersey Jack, American Pinball, or Chicago Gaming.
high · Chris: 'There is a guy right now trying to sell his Ultraman with the cabinet new in box...He paid over ten thousand dollars for it. He will take eighty two hundred dollars for the game and it's still not sold...I've never seen this happen before'

Topics

Stern Pinball's manufacturing excellence and market dominanceprimaryHaggis Pinball's fulfillment crisis and communication failuresprimarySpooky Pinball's quality-control oversights and design mistakesprimarySecondary market depreciation of Spooky titles and collector confidence crisisprimaryMultimorphic P3's 'dream theme' announcement as platform inflection pointprimaryJersey Jack Pinball's slow release cadence and lack of production visibilitysecondaryAmerican Pinball's viability and predicted market collapsesecondaryIndustry accountability, quality standards, and detail-oriented buyer basesecondary

Sentiment

mixed(0.35)— Episode opens and closes with genuine affection for pinball community and celebrates Stern's execution (high positive sentiment toward Stern). However, majority of runtime is critical: harsh attacks on Haggis (unfulfilled pre-orders, radio silence), Spooky (careless numbering decision, insert issues, quality tailspin), and American Pinball (viability concerns). Tone is frustrated accountability-keeper rather than cynical—Chris frames criticism as necessary for community benefit. Rooting tone toward Multimorphic/Jerry despite skepticism. Ends with commitment to 'call it like it is' balanced by promise to celebrate great games when they arrive.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.086

Ooooo, baby do you know what that's worth? Ooooo, heaven is a place on earth. They say in heaven, love comes first. We'll make heaven our place on earth. Welcome everybody to Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. Happy Friday, everybody. I got so many nice notes from people. And they all said the same thing. Chris, it was really nice hearing you talk positively about pinball for once. Maybe I should do more of that, right? I should say all the things I love in the pinball world. Well, you know, look, I love pinball. I love these machines. And you can tell I have a real passion for pinball. And I just wish we had more moments to celebrate and more games that were worth gushing over. And we're going to get there. We're going to get there. And hey, hey, it The game is just around the corner and he used two words and these two words are either gonna get people super Englishansa, Pat something 챙 clouds, Timing, he said it, I didn't. He said hashtag dream theme. You know, they're working on the final pieces of this new game and we're going to talk about that. I want to talk a little bit about the first Rush LE landing out in the world it seems and how this moment happens like every three to four months from Stern Pinball. And I want to talk about how these moments do humble me and they always give me a lot of respect for Stern Pinball and appreciation for For that company and everyone over there who just gets it done. We're going to talk about spooky pinball and how Ultraman is limited but you wouldn't know if you're looking at your machine and I just I can't I just I want to go like an episode without bringing up spooky and haggis. But it's really hard not to because I because I have to call it like I see it. And when I see some of these decisions. It's just like what are you doing? You have one job to do you're making games for Collector's Edition, bonehead move, none of the Ultraman games are numbered, and I'll just start out this show by saying we are now midway through February, there is still no update from Haggis Pinball, Damian promised a big update in January and he's gone radio silent. Off fajeknsyi farmbara 절�ka, I bet these games wont even be fulfilled to all the customers a year after it was announced. I bet all 250 fathoms dont get made till like July, August. And here's the one thing I just want to implore on everybody. Cause Damien just unfriended me on Facebook. Right? I'm Kaneda the unkind. I get it. I get it. I'm throwing some jokes their way. I'm making fun of the fact that they took money 9 months ago and they told people a The only way you could tell people that I can take your money today and games are going to be on the line in two months is if you have every single part in house ready to make that game. They know they didn't. They knew it was a pandemic and they still did it. Look, you can call me all sorts of names. Damien, I'm still going to shake your hand and buy you a beer if you let me at TPF. It's not personal, man. I'm just hard on the promises. I'm hard on the work. I'm hard on the The Timelines because someone needs to be and everyone has every right to be like hey man Where's our update and I'm seeing the same behavior I saw back with the other companies that had trouble He's emailing people one-off don't email people one-off come out and make an official statement For all your customers and not just the fathom customers the rest of the community is looking at this saying hey We just want the update is it that hard to give an update where things are at you said? Productionocument, production would start in January, it's now February, what's the update? That's it man, that's all we want. Okay, let's start with stern pinball and the fact that rush LEs are making their way out the door. They have fixed the problem of the scoop protector that was blocking the ball from going in. Very quick fix, easy fix, not a big deal, you know, not a game changer. A bit of a headache for operators who had rush pros on location. And I was looking at high voltage pinball and they were Unboxing their Rush Machine and I will say it looked pretty good. You know, I like the way it looked. These guys were like unboxing and setting up a machine using just one leg to support the machine. God bless them. It takes a lot of strength to do it that way. Kaneda's too weak. I don't do enough leg day to be able to set up a pinball machine by resting it on my thigh. But here's the thing I want to say about Stern Pinball. Stern Pinball is pinball. There is nobody else on this planet that actually Out pinball at hair salon, John Chang at L Denmark, I have to agree with the pricing of these games knowing what goes into them, but when you simply think about the fact that this company even through a pandemic, even through all the issues that everyone else is suffering with, they've continued to release new games. I know there's a backlog. They're going to catch up on that backlog, but they've never really slowed down. And every time I see a Stern LE announced revealed and shipped within a two month window there no drama there no hassle nobody ever lost money nobody been lied to If Stern has an issue they fix it better than anybody They do I had issues with Stern games and they fixed every one Their customer service is the best They have the best themes in pinball They have the best efficiencies as a factory and they by far have the best leadership team in all of pinball George Gomez and the leaders over at Stern and the talent over at Stern is incredible I am always in awe when I see a tour of the Stern factory. I know I make fun of them. I'm sitting in my little public relations office every day trying to cook up ideas that go into PowerPoint. They're making complex mechanical electrical machines that if not done right could burn down your house. 285,580,6レ Moż했어요 lugares, hatchesーノ, WPPR�ž, WVP temperatura, H Stanakányya abstain, $6905,136,472,63733... 23347,263,145,付7497,27315,358, center- côté It's $1100 and it's free right now. Why's that? It actually allows you to collect all these pencilsortunately used in the game for free by just 인터�uctivating cholesterolobstantial contained. 218,!". in two hundred fifty fathoms guys they're making ten thousand games a year try to go make ten thousand games spooky or cdc or anyone else out there and tell me how your quality is so the fact that they're able to do this volume at the quality level they have is absolutely phenomenal now am i gonna buy a rush no am i gonna buy a venom probably get one and see how the market treats that game but i'm happy that in a few months i knew and and everybody else will have a chance to say do I want the next Stern machine and they do it every three to four months. I want the next Jersey Jack machine, I'm waiting 18 months and there's still no, there absolutely is still no line of sight on when we're going to see that game. I would love to have more CGC games, I would love to have something new from Dutch Pinball, I would love to have more games from American Pinball. Remember when David Fix went on to podcast, you guys remember this? He went on to the super awesome Pinball show. And he said it was like January of last year. He said we are going to get two games out this year. Did they know? Are they going to get two games out this year? Probably not. You know, everyone just talks and talks and talks, but stern pinball, they get it done. So congratulations to everyone at Stern. This is probably the nicest love letter you're ever going to get from Canada. Now, speaking of love letters, I want to welcome Barry over at Dutch Pinball To the Kaneda Club. He was club member number 394. We are now at 395. Now, I think it was him. It says Barry at Dutchpinball and it's his full name. So Barry, thank you so much for joining. Thank you for the generous contribution. I'm glad to have you here, brother. And I've said it before, man. I hope you guys can figure your stuff out so you can make another game. Cuz I think you're one of the most talented pinball designers of the modern era. I just love to see more from you. Big Lebowski still to this day, kind of puts everything else to shame when it comes to world under glass. All right. All right. Let's talk about Spooky and then I want to end with P3. I'm going to give Jerry the finale, right? He's going to be the encore of this podcast. So Spooky Pinball. Well, first things first, they fixed on some of the newer games moving forward. The hedge Multibot issue, they have fixed it. The insert now covers the whole word. So when it lights up, it doesn't say hedge multiball. It's not a sheep game. It says hedge multiball, which is great. But here's the weird part. They didn't fix the other insert. That was a big issue, which was the triangle nose on the jack o' lantern should be a triangle. But the insert is a hexagon, which comes from Ultraman. And I just look at these moves and I'm like, huh, why did you not go over it? played inpromising of quarterback interooo, and at this price point and that leads me to my next bonehead it move over at spooky and I want to explain why it's a bonehead it move you are releasing a game called a collector's edition you're also releasing Ultraman as a limited edition game it is limited to only 500 units now let me ask you guys out there a question have you ever seen a stern le a limited edition that does not tell you what at the fire seizéntaleta Mike fits, Cukcsfehh, Ensliket's Team, Guwa, A dessaee is going to keep explaining and talk about pinball megetvision and stuff like that in his next video. If I wasn't on a train, how would a pinball geek be like, you even have time to be on a plane Spooky Pinball decided on the limited edition of Ultraman because they had a chance to have the actor who I guess played Ultraman sign the plaques that they would have his signature be there instead of the game number and so every single Ultraman has his little scribble and it is like a little scribble and it does not tell you what game number you are. Why? Why Chuck? Why Bob? Ugh The game is a game of the game. It's been how we do things, right? It's just how we do things in the collectible world. When you remove the number from what your item is, you've removed basically a lot of its collectibility. And I mean this when I say this. I don't care if there's some like build number like VIN number on the back of the game. People want an official plaque from the company on the front of that game. b despite parents Answering About w mats that people like being the boss with suitcase Mandal normally people thought theno enfermedguiness of I at right I was like man nobody getting like the short end of the stick more than Canadian because I wanted game number 500 because I wanted Ultraman number 500 and you would see it game number 500 out of 500 that super cool would be right next to my guns and roses number 500 out of 500 that exactly why I asked for that game number now that not there and you telling me that they couldn figure out a solve for this I get he signs the I'm going to take a sharpie and write the game number on each plaque. They could have easily wrote on every one, 1 of 500, 2 of 500 as games were going down the line. They could have easily done that. And they didn't. Or here's another solution Chuck. Just make another plaque to go underneath that that just has the game number. Fin exhausted topic motive topic fruition That was a boneheaded move and this is a boneheaded move. My advice for spooky pinball is this guys you got to slow down. You got to slow down. I know you're excited. I know you're making more money than you've ever made before. But you're making really silly mistakes and the details matter especially at these price points. And it doesn't matter how transparent you are. I don't want you to be on pin side all day long having to respond to all these things. I want you to just make great games and Sturms not on pinside guys, they just get the details done better. I think Spooky really needs to have a meeting that is titled Getting the details down. Right? We've got the manufacturing down. We're in a position to get some good themes, but we've gotta nail the details. Logistics matter and I think they need to do that. All right, let's go and end this episode of Kenea's Pinball Podcast with Jerry P3 Multimorphic Probably the biggest leap forward in the history of pinball and did it work out for Jerry has the P3 Multimorphic been a resounding success? Have all of you been itching to buy one of these platforms? The answer we know is no, they haven't sold many. This is a platform that Jerry believes in. He's passionate about it. I love his passion. The Nice guy I've hung out with Jerry personally I've interviewed him over the years and I've given him just as much feedback as a marketer in me it kills me watching this guy make these decisions because in Marketing in anything in life when you want to sell a product you need to give the customer what he or she wants Jerry's always been trying to make a pinball machine that he thinks they don't know they need and even though we've been seeing it for like eight nine years now the orders are not flying in they have sold nowhere near as many p3s as total nuclear annihilation so you could even argue it's not even about the theme it's just the platform but here's where it starts to get a little exciting for Jerry he's got mr. TNA Scott Danesi over there working on the music of this license game and we know Scott Scott Dinesi, Pinball He's not just a music guy. He's gonna work on other stuff lights and choreography It's what Scott Dinesi is great at I would argue that Scott Dinesi's role in pinball is to be more of a sound lights Choreography kind of guy he knows how to do that tremendously. Well, Scott bow and Karen's over there working on this game I'm really curious how bad spooky pissed these people off to drive them over to p3 The And now he's got an image online that looks like in a hand like an illustration of a hand Sculpting the David and we've got the Venus statue behind it and it says like we're putting the final touches on our new game And then it says dream theme now when I saw that dream theme it stopped me in my tracks I was walking through my apartment with my Gucci pajamas on and I stopped and I said dream Seam are you really going to say that like dream theme. I mean you can't use those two words lightly You can't you just cannot start throwing around dream theme unless it really is a dream theme like it just can't be like Jerry's gonna be like tic-tac-toe is always her dream theme of mine and here you go or Candy crush was always a dream. I love that cell phone game No, it can't be like that. And Jerry knows that his audience is the pinball community. Look, it is subjective like what's a dream theme and who considers what to be a dream theme. Some people consider Jaws a dream theme. Some people hate it. Some people consider Matrix a dream theme. Some people hate it. But Jerry knows his licensed game needs to be a stellar theme. Dare I say a Stellenberg theme. Uh oh, Jerry, I just did it. So what do we think it is? Based on this This week in Pinball Podcast, Terminate The game is so it's got like Greco Roman sculptures happening. Is it something to do with the Coliseum? Is it gladiator? I mean, could it be gladiator? I mean, I would love it if we got gladiator movie as a pinball machine. I think that's a super cool theme. I just don't know. Right? I always get nervous because I always think, well, then how are you going to make that big screen? Tentistlezeich速 repercussion, anchor and fun муюRYЯ, Dienaw regu, Futurama is not a dream theme for most, but yes, for Futurama fans, it is a dream theme. It better not be something like TNA 2 and he considers TNA to be a license and he licensed it and took it away from Spooky. I mean, it just better not be something like that. I don't think it would be that. I think he's used some powerful hyperbole to get people excited about this game, but here's the thing, we know this, you know this, I'm gonna be completely honest right now. There are not that many people excited The thread is not blowing up like the next Sternpin or the next pin from JJP The next game from P3 Multimorphic there isn much interest Jerry has to create the interest That has me excited because he must know deep down inside this theme needs to be amazing to do that Like he doesn have a loyal like huge fanbase He doesn have this community paying attention to what they doing This is gonna be the moment and I mean it This is the make moment for this platform If this dream theme comes out and it is a flop or people don't gravitate towards it or people don't order it, there's nowhere left for him to go. People are not gonna just have this thing sitting around for 20 years The Pinball Manufacturer makes tens of thousands of games and makes millions of dollars It's like Jerry at some point You've got to call an audible because even if you call an audible and just go make normal pinball for once Who are you really pissing off like there's only been a maybe a couple hundred people who bought the original platform You know the video game company has a console that's not successful. They go on and make the next one So I think Jerry needs to sort of realize that like this is it now I'm rooting for him I'm always rooting for the underdog and I'm also rooting for him for one simple reason I just want more games coming out I think last year was a real lackluster year in pinball and I want to see P3 Multimorphic put out a theme that excites us I want to see American pinball do something that excites us I mean I'm more worried about American pinball than everybody else in pinball I mean this I think American pinball is not going to be I think they caught lightning in a bottle when they released Legends of Valhalla, but I think a lot of those guys who went in at $8,700 are going to start to see those games trade for like $2,000 off. I mean we're seeing it already with Ultraman and Halloween. There's no way Ultraman and Halloween are ever going to hold their value and people are starting to get rid of their spots. The real scary tipping point has happened already. If you gave Spooky $2,000 and you got a big $2,000 off, you're going to get a huge $2,000 off. All of these are the products of the Buttercabinet Ultraman, that's what I did. So you owe them basically a little over ten thousand dollars. Now there is a guy right now trying to sell his Ultraman with a buttercabinet new in box. The game is in his house, new in box, not opened, buttercabinet. He paid over ten thousand dollars for it. He will take eighty two hundred dollars for the game and it's still not sold. The moment you lose more than your deposit, This is a scary moment for Spooky. The moment you know you're going to lose more than your deposit, you might as well not get the game because it's actually cheaper for you to just go buy someone else's used than it is for you to go hand Spooky a check for an additional $8,000. They are very, very close to that tipping point line and it's not good. I've never seen this happen to anything from JJP, from CGC. I've never seen this happen in American Pinball. This has never happened The game is basically losing $2000 in value before the majority of people even get the game. Never seen it happen. And it's nonrefundable. And that's why this is interesting to talk about because I've just never seen this before. Everybody, this has been Kaneda's Pinball Podcast episode. Are you waiting for it? 650. I've done 650 podcasts about pinball. I turned some of my old shows on on the SoundCloud page. Filmed, Filmed, Filmed, Filmed, Filmed, Filmed, I remember the days when my club members were like 23. I had maybe like 30. I was making like $27 a month on Patreon for like a year doing this. And I am so ecstatic to have each and every one of you here talking about you, Ed Ed Robertson, talking about you, Barry. It's great. This is such a fun place to talk about pinball and have weekly content about the things we love. And I'm happy to give all these years of my life making that content for you. And for The Haters Who Don't Get It I don't know what to tell them. I don't know what to tell them. I think I've been fair to every single pinball company. I think I call it like I see it. Sometimes I change my mind. I didn't see this price inflation coming this fast, but it is what it is. There was a recent pin side poll. How expensive is your pinball collection? The majority of people said they have over $100,000 in pinball machines. And that's what I've been saying for years. There's so many rich people in this hobby. These companies don't and now they do but you know the thing about rich people that people sometimes don't understand they got rich because they understand hard work they got rich because they make sure they get the details right if you're a carpenter and you don't get the details right you're not going to become a rich carpenter and even though these men have money you can't get away with sloppy mistakes in pinball and that is why I love this hobby it pulls everyone in from different backgrounds we're all from different Get out, we're out, out. Richard Corbett Kakenze, Cody at least chuck Where's your Conversion and he sees that and it distracts him and that is what my shows always been about is I just want to bring these issues to the surface so that everybody gets the best product possible and I do want to say how much I love pinball more often and I do want to gush over these companies more often and I will when they hire good animators when they don't have silly mistakes I'm going to be on top of them and when they release great games I'm going to applaud those games to no end I mean I wish more than The only thing we never had to talk about playfield issues with Guns N' Roses and we were talking about strategy and how to use the patches and how cool each song is and how all the light shows are amazing and the mechs are amazing and we know we're not talking about any of it because we all got sidetracked by the quality but that's more important. These things need to be of good quality and good reliability for the money and I'm always going to be on your side and I'm always going to hold these companies accountable when we know most won't. So Damien, get people their fathoms or at least get them an update by the end of this month because they paid you money and you owe them that. You now work for them. Have a great day everybody. I wascher spent